It gives me great pleasure to rise today and pay tribute to the congregation of Praise Cathedral Worship Centre and its spiritual leader, Bishop Lennox Walker, in the riding of Mississauga—Streetsville.

Praise Cathedral works actively towards empowering people to make healthy life-changing and life-sustaining choices, creating an atmosphere of praise and worship, love and unity to the winning of souls for the Kingdom of God. Since May 2005, the cathedral on Millcreek Drive has been a welcoming and shining example of the best in all of our people. I was honoured to co-present a Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal to Bishop Walker recently, something that he acknowledged was an award for all the members of the church.

During Black History Month, let us all celebrate the tremendous contribution that Praise Cathedral and all Black Canadians have made to our great country.

Mr. Speaker, this past Monday was the first Family Day in British Columbia.

In my riding, municipalities celebrated this day with a free pancake breakfast in Langford, a family fun swim in Esquimalt and family hockey games at the Sooke leisure complex, to name just a few.

While we welcome Family Day as a day to spend time together as families, we must now come together to do the work necessary to help those families who struggle every day to make ends meet. B.C. has the second-highest child poverty rate at 14.3%. The living wage in my riding is $18.07, but the minimum wage is still only $10.25, and the use of food banks in British Columbia is increasing twice as fast as the national average.

Fortunately there are groups such as the Mustard Seed food bank, the Coalition to End Homelessness and the Community Social Planning Council that are working hard to find solutions to the real challenges faced by all the diverse families in my riding, challenges in getting child care, affordable housing, food security, sustainable transportation and a living wage.

The work that these groups do will make a real difference for families in Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca in all these areas where the Conservative government is falling so short.

Mr. Speaker, teaching a young child to read is one of the most important and one of the most rewarding things we can do as parents and as a society.

Early childhood literacy not only provides an essential foundation for individual lifelong learning and success, it also prepares our future workforce to compete in the knowledge economy and enhances the quality of life for all citizens.

Ensuring that all young people can learn to read is the goal of Strong Start, an organization in my riding of Kitchener—Waterloo. Strong Start delivers an effective program that builds initial reading skills and enables children of all backgrounds and capabilities to succeed in a school setting.

Please join me in congratulating the staff and volunteers of Strong Start for their commitment to early literacy and for making a difference in the lives of families in our community.

Mr. Speaker, speaking truth to power is difficult at the best of times, but the Conservative government has created a special section in hell for those men and women in public life who have the temerity to be speak truth to power.

Kevin Page joins an ever-growing list of heroic parliamentary officers who have challenged the almighty Conservative propaganda machine. He has been the ultimate challenger to a fact-free government, pointing out inconvenient truths just as the machine is revving into high gear.

Unassuming and polite to a fault, the tax weary public has developed a fondness for his candour and evidence-based analysis. The more cabinet ministers attack him, the more he grows in public esteem. Whether it is the F-35, the Treasury Board cuts or every budget presented by the government, the PBO and Kevin Page have been more often right than wrong.

I do not know where the future will take Mr. Page, but he has set a very high bar in speaking truth to power, and we in the Liberal Party wish him well. Mr. Page, truth gets you heaven; untruth, the other place.

Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to rise today to recognize a remarkable young man from the Electric City region and my riding of Peterborough, Ontario.

Mr. Adam Noble is a 19-year-old resident of Lakefield, Ontario, currently in his last year of studies at Lakefield District Secondary School. What Adam has achieved to date in the field of science is truly remarkable. I am pleased to have the opportunity to recognize it here in the House of Commons today.

Though his resume is surprisingly long for an individual who is only 19 years old, I will shorten it and just let members know that Mr. Noble is the proud recipient of the European Union Contest for Young Scientists' international cooperation award for his work with nanosilver and water filtration systems. Most recently, Mr. Noble was invited to attend and present at the Nobel Prize ceremony and symposium.

Adam is a driven young man with a bright future ahead of him, and I have little doubt that he will contribute substantially to our knowledge-based economy of the future.

We congratulate Adam, and we wish him continued success with his exciting future endeavours. His community, country and this House are proud of his achievements.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise in the House to celebrate the achievements of our athletes during the latest Winter Special Olympics, which were held in Pyeongchang, South Korea, from January 29 to February 5.

The Canadian team finished with an impressive 44 gold, 44 silver and 21 bronze medals in six sports: alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, figure skating, floor hockey, snowshoeing and speed skating.

It is with a genuine surge of pride today that I honour three athletes from Beauport—Limoilou who brought home six of the 109 Canadian medals.

I want to congratulate Stéphanie Savard, who won one silver and two bronze medals in alpine skiing; Matthieu Besnier, who won one gold and one silver; and Jean-François Leclerc, who won bronze. The last two athletes competed in snowshoeing.

Bravo to the Canadian team, and in particular the athletes from Beauport—Limoilou, for their wonderful contributions.

Mr. Speaker, this January I went on my fourth annual New Year's riding tour and visited 26 communities in six days.

In communities such as Fiske, Ruthilda, Delisle, Asquith and Saskatoon, to name but a few, in local restaurants, post offices and new horizons centres, I met with dozens of constituents. I heard how pleased they are that Saskatchewan farmers finally have marketing freedom for wheat and barley, and that the long gun registry has finally been destroyed.

Their message to me was clear. They want our government to keep taxes low, continue to open new markets for our goods and keep cutting unnecessary red tape, such as the changes we made to the Navigable Waters Protection Act.

I would like to thank everyone who came out to share their thoughts and concerns with me and made this the most successful winter tour to date.

Mr. Speaker, February is Heart Month in Canada where heart disease and stroke take a life every seven minutes and 90% of Canadians have at least one risk factor. Heart disease and stroke are conditions that devastate individuals and entire families.

The Heart and Stroke Foundation makes a real difference in reducing heart disease thanks to its 140,000 dedicated volunteers and 2 million donors across Canada. Canadians have the power to “make health last” by addressing key risk factors, including physical inactivity, poor diet and tobacco use.

We in this chamber need to do our part by informing constituents about the importance of healthy living. One way is to encourage local governments to declare the first Saturday in June, national health and fitness day.

I would also like to invite all my colleagues to join me this evening in presenting the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal to Pierre Lafontaine and Phil Marsh, two trainers who, each week, invest their best efforts in improving the health of all members. Their investment in us will make us role models for a healthier Canada.

Mr. Speaker, every month, some 900,000 Canadians rely on food banks to have enough to eat. Nearly 40% of those 900,000 people are children.

I rise today to commend the outstanding contribution made by the Aylmer Food Centre in the fight against hunger. Created in 1988 to help about 20 families in need, the centre, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, now helps about 650 households in my riding.

With the cost of living rising despite stagnating wages, our communities need organizations like the Aylmer Food Centre more than ever. However, what Canadians need more than anything is for this government to make the fight against poverty its top priority.

I would like to congratulate everyone who was involved in making this first Winter Games on Canadian soil a success. These games left us with countless memories, including Elizabeth Manley's amazing silver medal win in women's figure skating, which I was particularly delighted with as a figure skater of some lesser talent; Brian Orser and Brian Boitano fighting it out for gold; as well as the Jamaican bobsled team and underdog Eddie the Eagle.

It is important that many of the facilities built for these games continue to benefit athletes, including the Olympic speed skating oval and WinSport's Canada Olympic Park. Our government recognizes that hosting the Olympic Games provides Canada with the opportunity to promote our culture, athleticism and respect for human rights.

In 1988, the world saw the best of Canada and 25 years later we are still reaping the rewards. Go, Canada, go.

Mr. Speaker, Quebeckers and Canadians were horrified to find out that three Conservative MPs asked the RCMP to launch a criminal investigation into some abortions. They clearly consider women who resort to this medical practice to be murderers.

The Prime Minister claims he does not want to reopen the abortion debate, but through his silence he is condoning the guerrilla tactics that a number of Conservative members are using to attack one of women's fundamental rights. The members for Kitchener Centre and Langley have moved two motions in the House to reopen the debate, and now three Conservative members are using the RCMP for partisan and ideological purposes in order to circumvent Parliament and the Supreme Court.

The NDP is proud to defend a woman's right to choose. Fundamental rights cannot be called into question, either directly or indirectly.

Mr. Speaker, 60% of my constituents in Oakville work outside our communities, from Hamilton to Mississauga to Toronto. I have met many working people in Oakville who budget down to the last dollar for GO Transit fares and really appreciate the tax credit our government introduced to save them money and keep more cars off the road. Others, who do not work near GO Transit stops, will sometimes hold off on filling their gas tank for days, waiting for when gas will be just a few cents lower per litre.

Over 1,200 families in Oakville use food banks to make ends meet. They have been overloaded with taxes from the McGuinty-Wynne government such as new sales tax, the eco-tax and the health tax. More taxes will only deprive their families of the basics. The last thing they need is a new super tax on gas, public transit energy, home heating fuel, that would drive up the price of everything they need at malls and stores, including clothes, cleaning supplies and groceries.

Mr. Speaker, NGOs play an important role in an effective democracy. They are able to project positive Canadian values abroad. Canada is home to many NGOs that have a proven track record of achieving results and forming deep partnerships in their work abroad.

Yet the Conservative government has ignored the merit of these successful Canadian groups and ideologically defunded organizations like Development and Peace, KAIROS, CCIC, the Canadian Nurses Association, the Forum of Federations, the Canadian Teachers' Federation and many others.

These organizations are gathering on Parliament Hill today to call upon the government to reinstate Canada's aid to the level it was before in the budget and to work toward our commitment to invest 0.7% of our GDP on international development.

Canadians want to make a difference and help the world's poorest. The Conservatives must stop standing in their way, because many lives depend upon it.

Mr. Speaker, our Conservative government has been working hard over the past seven years for Canadians. Since forming government, Canadians have placed their trust in us to deliver results. That is exactly what we have done. We have lowered the GST from 7% to 6% to 5%. That is something that saves all Canadians money, every day, every time they make a purchase. We implemented the children's fitness tax credit to help moms and dads with the costs of hockey, soccer and gymnastics, for instance. We have implemented the children's' arts tax credit to help with the costs of piano and guitar lessons.

Unfortunately, the leader of the NDP has a different plan for Canada. The Leader of the Opposition wants to implement a $20-billion job-killing carbon tax that would hurt Canadians. On this side of the House, we will continue to stand tall for Canada and we will fight the $20 billion job-killing carbon tax.